Apartments In Loveland Colorado As the Cost to Rent Soar Higer and Higher

Apartment rent at Colorado Springs-area flats hovered near a new high late last year part of a two year climb in renter costs that’s predicted to resume as demand for multi-family properties remains powerful, industry commentators say.

The monthly rent averaged $775.44 in Q4 of 2011, about $37 more than the same period in 2010, according to a dispatch released Wednesday by the Colorado Division of Housing and the Loft Organisation of Southern Colorado.

It was the eighth consecutive year-over-year quarterly increase in hires, the report showed.

Fourth quarter hires did decline about $3 from the 3rd quarter, but stayed near that quarter’s record high of $778.35.

The highest average Quarter Four lease, $900.42, was paid by loft dwellers on Colorado Springs’ northeast side. The lowest average rent of $615.80 was discovered in Fountain and the unincorporated Security-Widefield area, which are south of the Springs and near Fort Carson.

Hires are up because demand is on the rise. The citywide vacancy rate for apartments stood at 6.7 p.c in quarter 4 an one-half of a p.c. point increase from the third quarter, yet well under the 7.2 p.c vacancy rate in Q4 of 2010, according to the report.

The area’s vacancy rate has fallen steadily from double-digit levels over the past couple of years.

When homebuilding and homebuying was exploding from 2003 thru 2007, and thousands of troops were overseas in Iraq, house vacancy rates regularly topped 10 p.c.

Since 2007 Nonetheless, thousands of area house owners have lost their properties to foreclosure and are now hiring. Other homeowners can’t qualify for a mortgage because of harder borrowing wants by banks. And thousands of Military troops have returned to Fort Carson from their deployments or moved here from other installations.

The increased demand has driven up rents and triggered construction of a few residence projects in Colorado Springs, Fountain and Monument.

“The banks aren’t loosening up at all,” Laura Russmann, executive director of the Apartment Association, expounded of lending practices. "The wants are increasingly tough and I don’t believe, though there are a few things that the ( Obama ) administration is looking at at this time to kind of help homeowners, I don’t see that augmenting home ownership in any sort of a mass way.

“This ( powerful demand and rising hires ) is going to continue, and that is the reason people are starting to build now,” she added.